Randall and a handful of his colleagues hail from the Stranahan’s distillery just two blocks away. They were helping brew a second round of Breckenridge’s ESB beer aged in the whiskey maker’s used barrels.

The resulting Well Built ESB — which gets a sweet vanilla and hint of tart fruit from those barrels — is an outcropping of the the two neighbors’ long-standing relationship and shared creativity.

“We’re a bigger brewery, so we do some of the same beers a lot. But all of our brewers are artists,” said Terry Usry, a Breckenridge spokesman.

But the booze-producing neighbors could find themselves in a long-distance relationship within the next 18 months.

Soon North Carolina will be able to enjoy tasty New Belgium beers like this one.

This just in from the Denver Post’s Steve Raabe:

Fort Collins-based New Belgium Brewing said today it will build a new brewery in Asheville, N.C.

The $175 million facility will be just the second brewery for the nation’s third-largest craft brewer.

New Belgium said the new brewery will help it serve new markets and reduce the cost and environmental impact of cross-country distribution.

“After several years of searching, we are incredibly excited to have landed in Asheville,” Kim Jordan, chief executive and co-founder of New Belgium, said in a statement. “From the deep sense of community to the rich natural environment and the opportunity to revitalize a brownfield site near a vibrant downtown, Asheville has everything we’ve been looking for in a location for our second brewery.”

“I thought it would be cool to add recycled elements,” Willshire said.

Willshire, who works out of a spacious studio in her backyard, has enlisted local venues like Highland Tap and Burger and The Bluebird Theater to collect tens of thousands of bottle caps, which she carefully washes “to kill some of the beer funk” and sorts by color.

Head brewer Ro Guenzel talks a bit about the origins of Smokejumper, brewed in tribute to the men and women who travel the country dropping into rough terrain to aid fire firefighters, in a new promotional video.

Avery Brewing's last barrel room release of Muscat d'Amour and Recolte Sauvage. The brewery has announced it will release barrel-aged Uncle Jacob's Stout in April.

Turns out, Adam Avery’s “drinking problem” runs in the family.

A genealogy project revealed his great uncle six times over — Jacob Spears — was a distiller in Bourbon County, Kentucky circa 1790 and is widely credited with creating the “bourbon” appellation for the county’s whiskey.

“He had to start a distillery, and I had to start a brewery,” Avery says.

To honor his booze-loving ancestor and to mark the second release in the brewery’s annual barrel series, Avery announced Uncle Jacob’s Stout will debut April 7.

Once your faithful First Drafts correspondents recovered from our weekend trek to the 2012 Boulder Strong Ale Fest and compared notes, there was one beer that kept popping up at the tops of our “best of fest” lists: Surly Five.

As it turns out, the 500 or so attendees of the 10th annual fest hosted by Avery Brewing were lucky to get a taste of the 100 percent Brettanomyces-fermented sour that manages a fruity tang without the vinegar.

Surly’s head brewer Todd Haug says there aren’t plans to distribute outside of Minnesota for at least two years. In fact, the brewery had to pull out of Illinois, Wisconsin and the Dakotas after popular demand outstripped their production capacity.

Five was also brewed for Surly’s fifth anniversary, making it even more of a rarity.

Long-running video blog Beer America TV hopes to catch a network’s eye with the help of a Boulder-based production company and an assist from Colorado’s own Oskar Blues.

As we speak (write?), Boulder’s Warren Miller Entertainment is pitching networks on a series that would profile a craft brewery from each U.S. region and follow them as they vie for the gold at the 2012 Great American Beer Festival in Denver. And among the first batch of brewers would be can kings Oskar Blues, featured in the somewhat salty promo reel above.

Success for the show could mean higher profiles for Colorado beer, said Ginger Tatic of Warren Miller.

[media-credit name=”Courtesy of Water for People” align=”alignright” width=”306″][/media-credit]

Colorado-based non-profit Water for People helps provide access to safe drinking water in the developing world.

The folks at LoDo’s Freshcraft and Colorado-based Water for People want water to flow like beer everywhere on the globe.

The restaurant and the non-profit have teamed up for the month of March to draw attention to the difficulties people in developing countries have obtaining safe drinking water.

“Sometimes in our society it seems that clean water is taken for granted, and we believe that it’s important to bring some attention and awareness to an issue that can have such a huge effect in improving the world around us,” said restauranteur Jason Forgy.

During the newly announced All Hopped Up for Water event, the non-profit will be collaborating with New Belgium, Avery, Victory Brewing and Boulevard Brewing to feature a special beer flight that showcases the craft breweries’ dedication to water conservation.

Our new iPad app serves as a guide to metro Denver’s bountiful breweries, beer bars and bottle shops, the holy trinity of craft beer enjoyment for followers and fans. Download the app for iPad .
Next time you head for a beer in Boulder, don’t forget your friend, Beers of Boulder and Boulder County, an iPad app from the Daily Camera. Download the app for iPad .

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In Colorado, our pint glasses overflow with excellent beer. New breweries, new batches, festivals every other week. How lucky are we? First Drafts is The Denver Post's beer blog aimed at helping you keep tabs on the state's ever-expanding craft beer culture. We offer a mash of news, event coverage, homegrown stories, tasting notes and tips to help you imbibe. Expert drinker or homebrewer? Let us know what you're loving about Colorado's beer scene. Not sure exactly what a firkin is? No worries, let us be your guide. Go ahead. Belly up and drink it in!